Antecedents and consequences of global responsiveness: An empirical examination of MNCs in the global sourcing context

As global responsiveness (GR) has been recognised as critical for global market advantage, we draw upon social capital theory and develop a theoretical model which clarifies the determinants and consequences of GR. Based upon a cross-national sample of 118 MNCs from the U.S., Europe, and Asia, we found that intra-firm structural and inter-firm relational social capital, as reflected in integrative mechanisms and joint problem solving respectively, are positively associated with GR. In addition, whilst negatively related to global sourcing barriers, GR has a positive effect on MNC performance. Our findings also indicate that GR plays an essential role by fully mediating the associations of informationbased mechanisms, people-based mechanisms, and joint problem solving with global sourcing barriers and MNC performance. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 953664648. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M.-T. Tsai), [email protected], [email protected] (Y.-C. Huang), [email protected] (R. Ma). 1 Tel.: +886 6 2757575x53321. 2 Present address: 8F., No. 18, Dazhong St., West District, Taichung City 403, Taiwan, ROC. 3 Tel.: +1 9012166349.